


Drip drop

by starvingsnout



Category: Little Mix (Band)
Genre: Empire AU, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-14
Updated: 2015-09-14
Packaged: 2018-04-20 18:31:48
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,108
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4797941
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starvingsnout/pseuds/starvingsnout
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ja Leigh, Jade and Leigh-Anne, are a newly signed act at Empire Records and their future is bright. If only that pesky little Malik boy hadn't sunk his hooks in Leigh-Anne, who just wants to be loved by her best friend.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Drip drop

**Author's Note:**

  * For [mincuca](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mincuca/gifts).



> For the prompt, "leighade as an r&b duo", although Leigh-Anne is basically a rapper rather than a singer. This is also kind of an Empire AU, lol. Thank you, Bee, for beta-reading in a hurry.

Leigh-Anne fiddled with the gold-sequined front of her skirt as she walked, nodding an apology when she realised an assistant had trailed after her collecting the fallen pieces. She could feel Zayn's eyes on her back but gave him not the slightest bit of attention; he was all too full of himself as it was. She supposed it was nothing short of inevitable that the talented, good-looking son - only son - of one of the biggest music moguls in the United States should have grown into a conceited young man, but Zayn really was entirely too much. Leigh-Anne had read about his various "girlfriends" in tabloids long before she'd recorded a single demo for Empire Records, but she hadn't expected to be chatted up within five minutes of being introduced to the guy, in front of his father, no less. 

She'd played it cool so far, playfully deflecting all his invitations that had blown up her phone since that day, aware that while being seen together in public would benefit them both as fledgling artists, she just plain did not care to be known as one of his conquests. It was bad enough she'd been strong armed into featuring on his debut single. Jade had feigned nonchalance and even joked at her expense for being subject to Zayn's amorous advances, but Leigh-Anne knew her better than that. Out of the two of them it was Jade who'd have 'made it' had they never met each other. She was the ambitious one, the one staying up till the small hours to study up on the business side of things, answering every single tweet, comment and message sent to them on social media, submitting finished tracks everywhere from free Creative Commons sites to iTunes and Spotify. If one of them ought to have been given the spotlight as a solo act, it ought to have been her and they both knew it.

That wasn't to say Leigh-Anne had been coasting along while her partner laboured. Her responsibilities had simply been more focused on the creative side of things. They wrote much of their music together, but Leigh-Anne was the primary lyricist. In fact, their creative process always began with the furious scribblings in her notebook, worked into melodies and harmonies on fancy software Jade had procured through her older brother, who worked in the computer industry. 

In addition, it had actually been Leigh-Anne whose efforts had landed them their life-altering audition with Empire Records. As a massive fashion enthusiast, she had taken to beauty blogging on Youtube in her free time and exclusively featured their own tracks in the intro and as background music. Always on the prowl for non-copyrighted music, other bloggers had soon asked her for tailored pieces for their own videos and when a big name personality had finally latched on to one of their most popular songs an email from Doniya Malik in their inbox a few days later had been only a massive rather than an earth-shattering shock to them both. Doniya was their manager now and apart from this Zayn business of late they'd had little to complain about.

"Leigh-Anne, you're up." The assistant trailing after her earlier was now hovering impatiently behind her, a tablet clutched against her chest like a newborn child. From crew gossip Leigh-Anne knew emotions on the set had been running high from the get-go, with a slew of technical difficulties in the early morning followed by Zayn storming into his dressing room to sulk after a studio representative informed him smoking wasn't allowed on the premises. 

"Comin'." Realising she had wandered off all the way into the make up rooms, Leigh-Anne checked her face in the mirror one more time, instinctively puffing up her afro despite knowing the hair and make up people would fix anything amiss before the cameras rolled, and hurried back into the massive studio hall where three separate sets had been built, each in a corner of its own with thousands of dollars worth of lighting equipment and props that had taken weeks to build. She could only hope Yaser Malik would invest even 1/10th of the amount he was throwing at his son into Ja Leigh's first video, which should have been scheduled for next week but had been postponed so Leigh-Anne had the time to write her verse and rehearse choreo for Zayn's single.

Most of the crew were gathered around the brightly lit far end corner of the studio, in front of a giant cyclorama and a long white leather couch Leigh-Anne was supposed to cozy up against Zayn on in their first scene together. He was already sprawled on it with Caroline Watson, the main stylist for the shoot and a Malik family friend, crouched in front of him on her haunches, seemingly arranging his many necklaces. When Leigh-Anne got closer, however, she realised the woman was in fact giving Zayn what sounded like a pep talk while the singer listened with downcast eyes and pouty lips wrapped around the straw of a juice box, which was hastily shoved at Caroline when he noticed Leigh-Anne's arrival.

"Hey, babe," he greeted her smoothly, shooing the stylist away. Caroline rolled her dark eyes and smiled conspiratorially at Leigh-Anne as she left the set, not in the slightest perturbed.

"Zayn. Heard it's been an intense shoot so far."

The singer sniffed. "Technical problems."

Leigh-Anne only smiled serenely and waited for the makeup artist to finish re-dabbing her lips before sitting down next to him, a suitable distance away for now to not give him any ideas. A few barked orders later someone started switching off the main lights of the studio, rendering everyone beyond the spotlights' glow faceless, but Leigh-Anne managed to catch sight of a familiar slender figure approaching from the direction of the main doors. Jade had come, but why? Leigh-Anne had of course invited her, all but begged her at breakfast if only to deter Zayn, who appeared to be somewhat intimidated by her, but Jade had only made a noise like she had something stuck in her throat and gone back to reading news on her phone.

"Quiet!" the director shouted, which the assistant director repeated several times until everyone had quieted down in the dark. Leigh-Anne had met them both yesterday for the first time to walk through her parts, which were thankfully rather straightforward as Zayn was, apparently, a minimalist and intended to add most of the visuals digitally in post-production.

"Lighting is sequenced."

"Camera rolling."

"Sound rolling." 

A tinny, bassless version of Super Sinner began playing from the speakers, and after a couple of false starts and technical adjustments Zayn started doing his 'thing' i.e. mouthing the lyrics and eyefucking the camera. Leigh-Anne, who had little to do apart from a couple of ad-libs, bopped her head to the beat and stared at his profile with half-mast eyes of disdain that hopefully came off as sexy. Apparently not so much because only ten seconds later the director started shouting suggestions from behind the camera. "Leigh-Anne, touch him! Knee, shoulders, neck, c'mon, look at him like he's made of chocolate and you're on a diet! Good! Gooood! Lovin' it! Now, eye contact, please! That's riiiiight."

It went on like that for a good twenty minutes, Zayn getting up a few times to look at the monitors and see which way he liked the camera moving while Leigh-Anne relaxed more and more, settling into her role, and forgetting about Zayn's presence in favour of Jade, whose stormy face she could glimpse every once in a while between takes. It was inexplicably... titillating. Their relationship had been strictly platonic ever since that fateful night three years ago when Leigh-Anne had gotten tits over arse drunk at an industry party no one important had shown up to and all but threw herself on Jade in the ladies' room. They'd been sixteen and had only known each other for six months and the vibe between them until then could best have been described as outrageously flirty, but after the incident at the party all of that had come to an end so abruptly Leigh-Anne was still reeling, all these years later. 

In truth, she had never quite understood what the problem was. Not Jade's sexuality, that was certain, since she'd started seeing a dancer called Danielle soon after. If only they'd talked it out the morning after! Leigh-Anne had been too embarrassed to bring it up at first and then the momentum had passed and after that they'd been so busy with moving to LA and sorting out the legalities involved that all matters concerning their private lives had been pushed firmly on the back burner for a long while. To Leigh-Anne's eternal sadness Jade and Danielle's relationship had, however, survived against the odds even across the Atlantic far longer than it had any right to - damnéd be whoever had invented FaceTime - and only perished once their careers had truly taken off and swallowed up ninety-nine percent of their remaining free time. 

"Ooh, yeah, girl, show me some teeth!" the director egged her on from behind the camera and dutifully Leigh-Anne bared her teeth, feeling ridiculous, and pretended to take bites out of Zayn's neck while her freshly manicured nails dragged across his chest and even tore apart a necklace. 

Zayn played along while the cameras rolled but the moment the music stopped his "sexy" face dropped, lips pursed into one of his trademark pouts, and he started carding a hand through his currently silver hair in confused agitation. "Girl, that was expensive." Despite his words, he made no move to actually pick up the pieces of the necklace littering the couch. 

Leigh-Anne shrugged. "Tell daddy to buy a new one. We've wrapped this part up, yeah? I'm gonna go change." She rose abruptly and strutted off the set while the crew was still clapping towards the refreshments table near the main exit. Since she had quite a bit of choreo ahead in the next section, she settled for just half a glass of sparkling water and sipped it slowly as she retreated into the dressing rooms, fighting off the uneasy wave of regret about saying what she had to Zayn. It wasn't like her, making childish retorts like that.

And it wasn't just that. A more general cloud of gloominess seemed to have set up camp above her head all of a sudden. What was with this sudden need to curl up into a ball and sob her heart out. Maybe it was just the stress of the past weeks finally boiling over? Between rewriting the verse for Super Sinner eight million times, dance practice, Jade's few words and cool indifference, and Zayn's overbearing advances she felt constantly on edge, vulnerable to any and every stimuli. Drained. She hadn't talked to anyone in her family in ages - never seemed to have time off at an hour when England wasn't off to Bedfordshire - and her network of acquaintances in LA was still too shallow for any real emotional support. In fact, most people she had exchanged numbers with so far appeared to be mainly interested in her contacts rather than Leigh-Anne herself.

When she reached the dressing rooms Caroline was waiting for her, crouched over rows and rows of jewellery in long, velvet-cushioned cases, while her assistants sorted out the clothing racks with the outfits and shoes she had helped Leigh-Anne pick out a few days ago. "How'd it go?" she asked as she looked up, a twinkle in her eye. 

"It was..." Leigh-Anne breathed in deep.

Caroline squinted at her and gave her assistants a look, which had them slinking swiftly out of the room, the door closing behind them. "What's going on, love?" she asked in her comfortingly familiar British accent, which she hadn't lost even after a decade in LA. "Zayn can be a little shit, trust me I know better than most people, but he's not usually cruel with-"

"It's not Zayn, I mean not really," Leigh-Anne said shakily and let herself be pulled into a hug. "I'm just tired. And I don't- I haven't really had anyone to talk to about- anything that's going on. I've been so busy. I don't know why it just hit me now, all of a sudden. I feel so pathetic."

"Don't you worry, I've been in this business for almost a decade now and I've seen more meltdowns on set than I can even begin to remember. A few tears here and there is standard stuff. To be expected, really. This is your very first professional music video, it's hardly nothing." 

Leigh-Anne nodded at her every word and swallowed a few times before she felt settled enough to stand on her own feet again. "Thank you, Caroline. I'll be fine, I just need a moment alone, if-"

"Of course, love. You remember the pieces we chose for this scene? Good." She glanced at her wrist watch. "I'll come get you in ten minutes, your hair'll take time so we need to leave at least twenty minutes for that. And do have something more than water to eat."

Leigh-Anne waited until Caroline had left before she slowly sank in the chair in front of the vanity and pulled off her black pumps. Since they would be standing up in the second set, Zayn had ordered all the girls to wear trainers, to make him look taller, presumably. Leigh-Anne didn't mind, she was already nervous enough as it was without having to teeter around on hooker heels.

Suddenly there was a faint knock on the dressing room door and Leigh-Anne cringed, fully expecting Zayn to have taken the opportunity to woo her when no one else was around, but instead heard Jade's quiet voice asking if she could come in. "Of course you can, Jade, I'm pretty sure you've seen me naked more times than anyone else on this planet," Leigh-Anne answered, with forced cheer, leaning in closer to the mirror to take off her earrings. "Not that I'm naked, I haven't even started changing yet. Zayn is probably going to try and strangle me if I'm late, even though he's the one always lat-"

"Leigh."

Leigh-Anne straightened in her chair, mouth still open around the last word, and made eye contact with her friend through the mirror. Jade looked like she was coming straight from an official meeting in her plum-coloured jacket and silk trousers. Her top cut off just above the abs, like she preferred them, and Leigh-Anne couldn't help but let her eyes linger there for a few seconds before turning around in her chair. "Sorry. My nerves are-" She made a gesture with her hands like her brain was exploding. "Ugh. You know. What're you doing here? I mean, here at the studio."

"Had a meeting end early. We've found a location, for the video, that is. In Mojave desert."

"Oh, wow, that sounds amazing!" Leigh-Anne said genuinely. "I should've been there, though."

Jade cracked what felt like her first smile in weeks. "It's fine. There's a lot to left to do, and you'll be done with," she paused to let her gaze travel over the clothing racks, "all this today, right?"

Leigh-Anne nodded eagerly. "Absolutely. In a couple hours, actually, assuming everything goes as planned. We're filming my verse next."

"I heard the recording today, it's good. Everyone has the song on repeat at HQ and not just because it's the boss's son. He's alright but you're the highlight of the track." Jade moved as she spoke, absent-mindedly inspecting the comic book themed skirt Leigh-Anne was supposed to be changing into.

"Please. I was in such a hurry, I can't believe they accepted it almost as it was," Leigh-Anne mumbled. She had never written anything without having Jade approve it first before.

"You're brilliant, Leigh, I keep telling you. This is really cute, by the way," Jade said, still fiddling with the skirt.

"Zayn's idea. Order. Whatever. He does have good taste in clothes."

Jade turned half-way towards her, face mostly obscured by her hair, "He has good taste in women, too."

It was like Leigh-Anne's heart had abruptly melted into a boiling lump of syrup, thick and dark, barrelling burning blood to her extremities at an alarming speed. She felt drunk as she quipped, "You think?" 

"Has he managed to charm you, then? He's had plenty of opportunities," Jade asked instead of answering, with an ill-fitting hardness in her broad Geordie accent, which had remained steadily uncompromised during their two year stay on American soil despite not-so-subtle hints from one suit after another to get rid of it. "Looked like he has, anyway."

Oh my. Fucking. God. Jade was jealous! She was actually jealous! "I felt inspired," Leigh-Anne breathed out ridiculously, like a heroine in a screwball comedy.

Jade turned to look at her straight in the eyes, a sharp stare from beneath her long, sooty-thick lashes, which she must have gone to a professional for that morning; neither of them had ever been adept at make up. "Are you genuinely into him?"

"What if I am?" Leigh-Anne asked, a little annoyed now. Exactly what right did Jade have interrogating her like this with that cold, demanding voice she used on incompetent fast food workers and pushy telemarketers.

"I simply thought-" Jade stopped herself and seemed to consider her next words carefully. When she spoke her eyes seemed to have dulled and her voice had gone back to the infuriatingly professional tone she'd been bullying Leigh-Anne with for the past few weeks. "It's good. A good business decision. You should schedule a date for tonight, somewhere popular. Doniya will know."

"Will you be coming?" Leigh-Anne asked after a stunned second.

"On your date?" Jade let the question hang in the air for a moment. "That would ruin the whole point. Ring Doniya, today." She started walking to the door, as if in a hurry all of a sudden. "And wear something high fashion. Again, Doniya knows this stuff. You don't need me for this. See you later?" And with that she slipped out the door.

"The fuck," Leigh-Anne said to the empty room and turned to the mirror to see her own baffled eyes ogling back at her. She hadn't imagined it, had she? That had been stone cold jealousy on Jade's face, right there, even if only for a tiny little moment in time and suppressed so quickly a lingering doubt of its existence now plagued her. But on a more urgent and not completely separate note, should she really go on this date with Zayn, if only for PR? 

No, she decided with a mutinous glare at her own reflection. She would not. Not even with the possibility of more Jealous Possessive Jade.

...Oh, who was she kidding? If there was even the tiniest possibility of Jade getting her head out of her arse and seeing what was right in front of her, who was Leigh-Anne to prioritize her pride over it? In fact, she had just enough time to ring up Doniya right now before someone came looking for her.

\---

Leigh-Anne had showed up at Hamasaku, a Japanese restaurant in the back corner of a West LA strip mall, at 8 pm sharp and had even taken her time posing to the paps outside in her brand new fall collection Dior dress Caroline had hooked her up with. Doniya in her usual bubbly manner had been delighted to arrange the date and had even promised to take care of notifying Zayn about it after the video shoot was done so Leigh-Anne was spared from seeing his victorious face for a few hours longer. 

And now that she was here, sipping the vodka martini she'd ordered to carry her over till dinner, Leigh-Anne felt quite at peace with herself and her decisions. She'd only dropped in at home to check for emails and take a quick shower after the shoot before heading over to Caroline's; Jade hadn't been there. Which was just as well. There was a note waiting for her on the fridge door for when she did come home, an obnoxious little Post It with big letters and the words "getting that future superstar D on doctor's orders, don't wait up ;)". In truth, Leigh-Anne'd been half-hoping for it to spur Jade into action and come after her with guns blazing before dessert was served, but she wasn't counting on it. Hopefully it would at least make her think.

Where the hell was Zayn, though? He was over forty minutes late now and that was a lot even for him. Leigh-Anne dug out her phone, placed it on the table and ordered another martini. She would wait exactly one hour, no more and then- go home? She couldn't do that, that'd be humiliating after her smug note. Try and ring him? 

Feigning nonchalance, Leigh-Anne rose from her table and approached a waiter, feeling like everyone must have been watching her with eyes full of pity, to ask if she could be let out through the kitchens to make a phone call, which they thankfully granted her with no questions asked. The cooling night air was a welcome greeting as she stepped out into the street and immediately ducked aside into a smaller side street to find Zayn's number in peace. As she listened to the ringing from the other end she spotted a black BMW with tinted windows and a familiar license plate number parked further down the street. Zayn's incognito car.

A curious sense of foreboding in her chest, Leigh-Anne approached the car from behind and crouched down to knock on a backseat window. For a few seconds nothing happened, then it slowly rolled down, revealing Zayn's shocked face and tousled hair. "Leigh-Anne," he coughed to clear his throat, "what's uh- I must be pretty late."

Movement further inside the car caught Leigh-Anne's eye before she managed to say anything and in a moment of rage she felt terribly tempted to slap Zayn in the face with her purse as it dawned on her what was going on here. "Aren't you going to introduce me?"

"To... who?" the little fucker had the nerve to ask, eyes wide as saucers.

"Whoever it is you're hiding inside the car, behind you."

Zayn only continued to stare at her, as if he hadn't heard her. Then a new voice, a distinctly male voice, pitched in, "Zayn, baby. Might as well come clean." 

"Who are you?" Leigh-Anne asked.

The backseat door on the other side opened and a man stepped out, with slicked back beer-coloured hair and friendly, chestnut brown eyes. He was wearing only a vest and basketball shorts, as Leigh-Anne could see when he circled the car and extended a hand towards her. "Liam Payne, nice to meet you. We've actually met before, briefly, but you probably don't remember me." He laughed affably. "I'm Zayn's personal trainer."

Leigh-Anne glanced at Zayn, who was chewing on his lower lip and still not saying a word. "Yes, I see..."

"Quite." Liam coughed. "I'm sorry that you, uh, have been caught in this, and I'm sorry that I'm going have to ask you to keep a secret for us."

"The secret being that the two of you are..."

"In love," Zayn mumbled at the same time as Liam said "together". They exchanged alarmed looks, each worried for the presumably opposite reason to the other's, but Leigh-Anne wasn't willing to stand there all night discussing the relationship of other people when she had a relationship of her own to fix. 

"Fellas, I have no problem whatsoever keeping your secret. Just one question. I presume you do not have an open relationship and I was to be nothing but a decoy for the press? One in a long line of decoys?"

Zayn nodded. "Sorry if I made you uncomfortable. It's part of my artist persona, the womanizing. I mean, I want to come out as, like, bisexual some day, but-"

"Say no more. Since this evening has gone to waste, we should probably re-schedule our dinner. Talk about terms and conditions et cetera. But right now, could you boys maybe give me a lift home?"

\---

Leigh-Anne arrived home after having been gone two and a half hours, which she considered acceptable. Zayn had thanked her profusely for her acquiescence most of the way back and kept assuring her she had done a brilliant job on his video, as well. Overall quite pleased with herself, Leigh-Anne climbed the steps to the second floor and let herself in the apartment, which was dark apart from the kitchen. Odd. A little nervously, she hung up her coat and bag and approached, silently cursing herself for not having the foresight to concoct a fabricated version of the night's events for Jade. Maybe it was enough to say she and Zayn had simply flirted outrageously and were planning to go out again.

All further ideas vanished from her head when she stepped into the kitchen to find a positively distraught-looking Jade sat at the table in nothing but a snow white silk robe, a glass and an unopened bottle of wine in front of her. She was staring at Leigh-Anne as she entered, with big, disbelieving eyes and a slight tint of red on her cheeks, out of embarrassment? "You're back early," she said, almost suspiciously, eyes flickering into the darkness behind Leigh-Anne's back, as if she thought Zayn might have followed her up.

"Yeah, it was uh. Things didn't quite go as planned. We had to reschedule."

Jade frowned. "So you didn't have dinner at all?"

"Nope. He was late, to begin with. And it turned out he had a... previous engagement. Missed the paps and everything."

"Doniya will be disappointed."

"Yeah, well. I'm not. While I have come to positively like Zayn, my romantic and sexual interest in him remains at a zero."

"Oh. Well that's good to hear." Jade looked at the wine bottle. "Guess I won't be needing that, after all."

Leigh-Anne's heart picked up speed and she raised a hand to press against her stomach where a flock of butterflies had taken off in flight. "You're drinking because of me?"

"Yup. And because of me. Because I'm a coward. Although technically I haven't even opened the bottle yet, so."

"And... why're you a coward?"

Jade took in a deep breath and stood up, facing Leigh-Anne head-on. "Because I'm in love with you. And I never told you."

Leigh-Anne let out an embarrassing sob and took a few running steps towards her around the table to squeeze her cheeks between her palms. "Jade Thirlwall, you lovely, beautiful, amazing creature!" She kissed her twice in quick succession, impatient to say what needed to be said. "I love you too. God, you should totally know that, I've been so obvious."

Jade smirked and wrapped her arms around Leigh-Anne's waist. "A little. But I'm the bigger idiot here. Acting like a jealous fool. I've been so mean to you, too."

"You'll make it up to me. And it was well worth it."

They stood there in each other's embrace for a few moments, not saying anything, just exchanging little kisses and smiles. Leigh-Anne felt like she could've taken off to flight she was so happy. She hadn't had a proper girlfriend since she'd met Jade and even though she had supposedly given up on her friend ever returning her feelings a long time ago, she realised now it was all bullshit. There was no one else for her. No one who understood her better, knew what she meant from a single word, completed her on the page and in life in general. She wanted to say all of it, put all the emotions swelling her chest into words, but it was too much to say at once and right now, when they had technically only just gotten together. So, instead she said,

"Y'know, the jealousy part was pretty hot, though."

"Was it now?" Jade brought their faces closer together again, but now instead of sweet it was intense and loaded, and all of a sudden Leigh-Anne was very aware of the fact that Jade appeared in fact to be naked under her robe, as evident from the fact Leigh-Anne could see most of her breasts from her current vantage point.

"Jade," she started conversationally, "are you by any chance not wearing anything under there?"

"Maybe. What would you do if I wasn't?"

"I would," Leigh-Anne pretended to think. "I would probably feel the need to get out of this very expensive Dior dress so it won't get wrinkled should we not have the patience to undress properly before hitting the bed."

"Wow, that was a complex sentence for you."

"Hey, are you calling me stupid!?"

Jade laughed giddily and slapped Leigh-Anne raunchily on the arse as she danced out of the kitchen. "Get out of the dress, take a shower, whatever you need, I'll be waiting. In my bedroom." She blew her a kiss and disappeared into the dark hallway.

It was the fastest shower Leigh-Anne had ever taken and afterwards she only spent a minute or two brushing her teeth and giving her hair the most cursory of combings. Jade had seen her at her very worst, it seemed silly to try and impress her now. Although she was quite glad to have had at least waxed and shaved recently.

Jade had lit the bedroom sparingly and was lying on the bed cover on her back, the silk robe undone but mostly covering her body. There was a faint vanilla scent in the air, but Leigh-Anne couldn't say where it came from. And she didn't much care. She'd donned a thick bathrobe to dry off her skin quickly but wasted no time dropping it on the floor now, not in the slightest bit bashful. If there was something she was confident about, it was most definitely her body.

Jade let out a little gasp and made grabby hands at her. "Come here. Next to me, right now. I need to put my hands on that booty."

Leigh-Anne complied, scaling the length of the bed on all fours like a beast of prey, even baring her teeth and growling through laughter, but in the end she simply slumped down next to Jade, who immediately tugged her close and pressed their mouths messily together. They kissed for a long while, almost long enough that Leigh-Anne's shower warm body was starting to shiver slightly and she crawled impatiently forward, pushing Jade on her back so she could spread apart the lapels of the silk robe. "I've wanted to do this since forever," she sighed before greedily kissing Jade down her neck and to her shoulders, her erect nipples and flat stomach where she changed tactics and licked her way up to Jade's breasts, with long swipes of her tongue. The saliva left trails on her skin and they glistened like glitter in the dim lighting of the room as Jade's breathing got heavier and heavier.

"How d'you like it? Here?" Leigh-Anne asked quietly, fitting a thigh between Jade's to rub between them. It was funny that despite them both being into women they had never really discussed their bedroom habits in any detail and it added a kind of thrill not to mention a completely new dimension to their already deep friendship. 

"I think," Jade started slowly and then pushed Leigh-Anne off her and on her back, hands lifting her arms above her head, "I would like to have my turn now. Because you look like you're about five seconds from coming all on your own."

Leigh-Anne's chest rose and fell to the rhythm and motion of Jade's tongue on her breasts, sucking on the flesh of the mounds around the nipples while her hand slid up and down her thigh, brushing against the lips and smearing the wetness between Leigh-Anne's legs but withdrawing just before relieving the pulsing pressure of her vulva.

"Jade, please."

"Alright, baby, 've got you," Jade murmured and slid two fingers inside with audible wet noises as she worked them slowly in and out and her mouth closed over a nipple, tugging it softly with her teeth and lips. Her fingers moved faster and faster, until Leigh-Anne was squirming and gasping for air like a suffocating fish, out of her mind with pleasure, legs spread on the bed both languid and twitching with a mind of their own. "C'mon, let go, Leigh," Jade whispered into her hair in her sweet, sweet voice. "I want you to drench my hand." Her thumb started rubbing over Leigh-Anne's clit and a feeble wail like one of a dying animal ripped out of her, almost embarrassing but not really because she'd been waiting for this ever since she'd hit puberty.

"Yeah, just like that," Jade sighed as she held Leigh-Anne's convulsing body tight against her own. 

They weren't sharing eye contact but somehow it was the most intimate moment of Leigh-Anne's life, Jade's wiry arms pressing them together. Gradually her body stopped shaking and a blissful warmth spread all over, like a warm wave that threatened to pull her under, but she resisted, reminding herself sternly she wasn't alone. She tested her voice at the back of her tongue and inched her face towards Jade, who was lying idly by her side and drawing circles around one of Leigh-Anne's dark nipples. "You're amazing."

Jade only smiled, wide and content and a little smug, her lips glossy with sweat.

"I want- no, I need you to sit on my face now."

"Oh?" Jade's eyebrows formed two perfect arches high on her forehead, but there was definite interest there. 

"Yeah, c'mon. I'm going to fall asleep if you don't."

"Well, if you put it like that." Jade pushed herself up on her elbow, glanced down at Leigh-Anne's relaxed body and then leaned in for a long kiss. "Y'know, I would be fine if-"

"Don't you say another word, sugah, just sit right here on mama's face like a good girl!" Leigh-Anne ordered in her best Southern accent.

"I guess I'll have to if only to shut your mouth," Jade mumbled, pretending to be exasperated, and clambered over Leigh-Anne on all fours.

"Mm, mama's likin' this view," Leigh-Anne drawled and grabbed Jade's firm arse with both hands.

"Oh my god, stop! Say one more word with that accent and I'll-"

"What? Sit on my face? That's what I'm trying to mmpf-"

Jade giggled and wiggled for good measure over Leigh-Anne's mouth and muffled protests until a tongue sneaked in between her lips and her laughter turned to breathless gasps and moans instead. The muscles of her thighs clamped around Leigh-Anne's head and Jade would have been worried about choking her but her orgasm was approaching rapidly and she could only thrash helplessly as it hit her, wave upon wave, while Leigh-Anne's fingers digged into her belly and back to keep her where she was. Eventually the pleasure dulled into a dreamy haze and she pulled away, falling back on the bed, head pointing in the opposite direction as Leigh-Anne's. 

For a long while neither said anything, content to caress each other's thighs and engage in a wordless fight over the one blanket currently not trapped under their heavy, sated bodies. Jade broke the silence first, with an almost timid, "Leigh, I need to apologize properly."

"It better not be for the mind-blowing sex we just had," Leigh-Anne said playfully even as fear pinched at her chest.

"No. It's- I truly have been an idiot. I thought it'd be better if, if we stayed just friends. And it was so easy, too easy, when spoiled little fuckboys weren't chasing after you day and night."

"Nah, Zayn's not that bad." Leigh-Anne considered telling Jade about Liam, but that might give her the wrong impression, that she'd only come back because Zayn had had company. And besides, it wasn't her secret to tell. "And, I'm pretty sure he won't be a nuisance in the future."

"He better not," Jade mumbled but in a mellow, lethargic voice that signaled impending sleep. "Leigh, we're gonna make it, right? As a couple and as a band?" 

"Yeah, 'course. Doniya won't let us fail. You won't let us fail. We're gonna go to the desert and film an awesome video and no matter what, we'll be together, yeah?"

Jade didn't answer. Her face was resting slack against Leigh-Anne's knee and her bare chest rose and fell in an even rhythm, slow and steady.


End file.
